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Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King (1 January 1789)

Little is known about women’s grievances or feelings in the months leading up to the meeting of the Estates–General in November 1789. They did not have the right to meet as a group, draft grievances, or vote (except in isolated individual instances) in the preparatory elections.

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Song of the Marseillaise of the Federation of 10 August, Year II

One of many hymns that was composed by rhyming new lyrics to the wildly popular tune of the "Marseillaise," this song was performed at a festival celebrating the first anniversary of the republican revolution of August 10.

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Song for the Festival of Old Age

This song was composed for one of the many Directorial festivals that were not overtly political. Several, like the festival for which this song was composed, celebrated important moments in the life cycle.

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Patriotic Song on the Unveiling of the Busts of Marat and Le Pelletier (1793)

This song illustrates the fluid boundary between "high" and "popular" musical forms. Althought these lyrics were set to a new composition by Joseph Gossec, they could also be sung to a tune already familiar to many French men and women.

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The Huejotzingo Codex of 1531

The Huexotzinco Codex (Huexotzinco Codex) is an eight-sheet legal document from sixteenth-century New Spain. The document is a part of the testimony by the Nahua people from Huexotzinco in a legal case against representatives of the Spanish colonial government in Mexico.

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How the Aztec (Nahua) Raised Sons as Warriors

Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded this text in the mid-16th century as part of an effort to gather information about native Aztec history and customs. Sahagún went to Mexico in 1529 as one of the first missionaries assigned to the newly conquered territory of New Spain.

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Advice of an Aztec Father to His Sons

Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded this text in the mid-16th century as part of an effort to gather information about native Aztec history and customs. Sahagún went to Mexico in 1529 as one of the first missionaries assigned to the newly conquered territory of New Spain.

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Vending Machine

In the United States coin-operated drink machines - generically called "coke machines" - are ubiquitous consumer objects regularly punctuating our everyday landscapes. We feed them our money and out roll individually packaged liquid refreshments.

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Oh Richard, Oh, My King!

This aria from the Gretry opera, Richard the Lion–Hearted, was adopted by royalists during the early years of the French Revolution. The song’s accusation that the king had been abandoned by all but his most devoted followers made it a suitable counter–revolutionary anthem.

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It’ll Be Okay

Popular during the early years of the French Revolution, this song’s lively tune and repetitive chorus expressed revolutionaries’ hopefulness about the future. Singers manipulated its malleable lyrics to address a broad range of topical issues.